With Halloween approaching, we felt we should warn you about a monster you may not know about. This monster lives off of your most precious resource – time. It’s downright frightening how much of our time can be wasted.

See if you can relate to any of these haunting situations:

Chatty co-worker

You’re working on that bigg project. You reach a point where you just seem stuck. Maybe getting away from your desk will help. So you get up to stretch your legs and grab a cup of coffee. You’re in the break room when that chatty co-worker walks in. Fifteen minutes later, you’re finally back at your desk.

You’ve been bitten by Count Clockula!

He lives off wasted time, sometimes using other people to feed his ravenous appetite.

E-mail alerts

You’re busy working at your computer. You see the alert that your friend just sent you an e-mail. You can’t resist. You have to see what it is. It’s a fun video. Well, you might as well watch it now. Wow, it’s funny. Better e-mail your friend. Five minutes later, you’re back to work.

Count Clockula got ya again!

He sucks your time away by tempting you with things that are appealing. They seem like more fun than the important things you need to work on.

Lost keys

You’re running late for work. You rush into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee for the road. You grab your laptop bag. Your keys! Where are your keys? You can’t find them anywhere. You look everywhere. Ten minutes later, you find them underneath yesterday’s mail.

Count Clockula strikes again!

By keeping you from paying attention to seemingly little things, he can suck away a lot of your time.

Misplaced files

You have a meeting in five minutes and you can’t find the file you need. Where did you put that file? Is it in this stack? No. How about this one? No. You keep looking. If you don’t find it soon, you’ll just have to go without it. Ah, there it is – at the bottom of that overflowing “In” box.

Closely related to the last issue, Count Clockula thrives on disorganization.

Meetings

You went to yet another meeting. The project leader was late. Then he didn’t keep the group on track. The conversation just floated from one issue to another without accomplishing anything.

Count Clockula sinks his teeth in again. He thrives on dead time – where groups of people are completely unproductive.

Media

You have a major report due in a couple of weeks. As you were doing some research for it, you found a great site full of information. You spent a lot of time there. Sure, it was still research, but it was more than you needed for the project.

Count Clockula flies again! Sometimes he overwhelms you with his charms.

Lack of focus

You don’t really have a sense of direction. Sure you think about your goals near the end of every year. But you don’t keep them in front of you like you should.

It’s the worst bite Count Clockula can deliver.

How can you allocate your most precious resource effectively if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish?

Word of warning

We’d be remiss if we didn’t warn you about one more thing. Unlike other vampires, Count Clockula doesn’t just come out at night – he’s out all the time. Beware!